of a mild and gentle disposition, greatly attached to the whites, whose manners and dress she tries to imitate, but she had become sickly, and longed to revisit her native country; her husband, also, who had spent many years among the Indians, had become weary of a civilized life. So true it is, that the attachment to the savage state, or the state of nature, (with which appellation it has commonly been dignified,) is much stronger than to that of civilization, with all its comforts, its refinements, and its security.
[11] The next day, about two o'clock in the afternoon, having at length succeeded in getting all hands on board, we proceeded on our voyage. Found an excessive current, augmented by the state of the waters. Having come about six miles encamped. In the course of this evening had as much cause to admire the dexterity of our Canadians and Creoles, as I had before to condemn their frivolity. I believe an American could not be brought to support with patience the fatiguing labors and submission which these men endure. At this season, when the water is exceedingly cold, they leap in without a moment's hesitation. Their food consists of lied corn homony[1] for breakfast, a slice of fat pork and biscuit for dinner, and a pot of mush, with a
- ↑ "Lied corn" is that from which the skin of the kernels has been stripped by the use of lye; sometimes called "hulled corn."—Ed.
dents of Indian linguistics state that the proper phonetic spelling is Tsakákawea, Sakákawea, Sakágawea, or Sacágawea—preferably the last. The place of her capture was Fort Rock, at the Three Forks of the Missouri (Gallatin, Jefferson, and Madison rivers). Sacajawea—as she has come to be known in historical accounts—and her infant son accompanied Lewis and Clark to the Pacific, her services proving valuable both as interpreter and guide. Upon the return journey, the explorers offered to take Charbonneau and his squaw to the settlements, but they preferred remaining among the Mandan. Charbonneau was seen (1833) in the Minitaree villages by Prince Maximilien (see vols. xxii, xxiii, and xxiv of our series). Five years later Larpenteur encountered him in the same region, when he speaks of him as an old man. See Coues (ed.), Forty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri (New York, 1898). This is the last known of Charbonneau. An Indian visiting St. Louis in 1902, claimed to be a great-grandson of Charbonneau and Sacajawea.—Ed.]
